All Babies Are Born
by Catherine Gordon
New Birth Company now has a supply of Cathy’s book, “All Babies are Born.” We can sell you your signed copy from our online store.
Every year 529,000 women and 5.7 million newborns die, most in the developing world. (World Health Organization, 2010)
The book ALL BABIES ARE BORN reveals the difficulties women in the world face during pregnancy and childbirth. The twelve chapters of the book take the reader into twelve different scenarios of global childbirth experiences in nine different countries. The outcomes of the birth experiences are different. The author completes each chapter with compelling global facts substantiating the birth outcome. ALL BABIES ARE BORN initiates the reader to join in the battle against global birth disparities like HIV, malnutrition, governmental constraints and much more. The stories portrayed are real and written through the eyes of a midwife, describing the challenges she encountered during medical mission outreaches. Without creative healthcare and God’s grace, these stories may not have had the same outcomes. The lives of women would have been reduced to a mere statistic. This book is the voice of those women.
Catherine Gordon is a family nurse practitioner and nurse midwife who has worked in over 27 countries and lead over 40 health care teams internationally. She founded the non-profit organization, Mercy & Truth Medical Missions, in 1994, with a mission of providing healthcare to the uninsured and underserved. To date, they continue to send teams internationally and operate four primary care clinics in the greater Kansas City Area, including a freestanding birthing center. Catherine has a passion for women and their babies. This passion has ignited a flame in her to be their voice. Recently she co-founded the New Birth Company and the non-profit Les Amis de Naissance with a specific unique focus on serving women giving birth. The mission is to combat maternal child disparities globally and build “incredible birth days” for all women and their families.
Catherine Gordon is a nurse and a midwife who serves as a witness to what she has seen and experienced as she provides care to women as part of medical missions in low resource underserved countries. She often worked without what some would consider essential supplies, equipment, and medications and at times without electricity or running water. Cathy Gordon tells 12 stories of women in different countries for whom she has provided care and becomes their “voice” to the world. She infuses these stories with her Christian beliefs and references to scripture.
Also integrated into each story is a description of the locale – both local and national – of the country where each birth takes place. Included are national mortality statistics, the status of women and children, what is available (or not) in skilled birth attendance, and information from the World Health Organization and UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund).
She makes the lives of these 12 women and the difference her participation makes in their birthing process a vivid reality. It is a good read for all who love birth stories and care about the circumstances and outcomes of birth for women, babies, and families throughout the world. – Helen Varney Burst, CNM, MSN, DHL (Hon.), FACNM
Following Cathy Gordon’s incredible ‘deliverance ministry’ shuttles you from Africa to China to a dozen other places where helping precious little babies emerge safely into this world involves so much more than merely opting for a c-section versus vaginal delivery. Often the ‘breech’ problem Cathy must solve relates more to rulings from Islam’s Shariah law if not to governance demanding abortion as a means of restricting population growth! The incredible situations Cathy faces and the ingenious help that God–the Inventor of babies and birth–provides for her is a momentous inspiration to everyone who dares to seek God’s calling in their lives. – Don Richardson
The book chapters are clear accounts/ “case” descriptions of the culture, health care, and living conditions of people living in countries where the real-life stories occurred. Writing the book [based on many years of your work with the medical missions] indeed reflects a personal journey. – Phoebe D. Williams, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor, University of Kansas School of Nursing
All mothers desire to have a healthy baby, a truism embraced within one’s heart and soul as pregnancy is recognized. Trust, cultural beliefs, and spirituality surrounding birth are uniquely captured in the book, All Babies are Born. Stories from a global context include the joy and challenges of American midwives supporting women giving birth in under resourced countries. Particular focus guides the reader in experiences of one midwife’s journey within herself, birthing women, and God. Through descriptive scenes, voices of women, and scripture, one notes the profound call for global recognition of the unnecessary and devastating losses of human life. Voices rarely heard by those who do not suffer similar geographic disparities. This book will move you to action.” – Ginger Breedlove, PhD, CNM, ARNP, FACNM
Cathy Gordon, midwife and missionary lifts up the essence of global birth disparities viewed through a Christian lens. As she describes her journeys into sweltering rain forest and barren institutional hospitals, we are tucked inside her pocket, meeting laboring mothers through her eyes. I laughed with her during moments of absurdity and sighed out loud at her frustration of not being able to fully practice her craft in absence of simple supplies. It is my deepest hope that American mothers read this book. We will cry, we will get mad, and then- we will act. – Kendra Wyatt, Co-Founder New Birth Company L3C
Catherine Gordon’s knowledge, skill and passion for nurse midwifery is personified in this book which tells the story of her personal journey to assist women through childbirth. She shares her stories, secrets, faith, compassion, and wisdom as she travels through nine countries to assist vulnerable populations bring new life into the world. Many of the women and families in these exemplars bring with them significant psychosocial, cultural and environmental issues that put them at increased risk for poor obstetric outcomes. This brook brings to the forefront the true value of the midwifery model of care. – Helen R. Connors, PhD, RN, FAAN